Using text messaging to train fish farmers

25 January 2016

Mobile technology is increasingly important to day-to-day life, and as 82% of Kenyans now own a mobile phone, communicating by text message makes sense – it’s fast, easy and accessible to farmers wherever they are.

Farm Africa has been using text messaging to send out advice to fish farmers, covering everything from helpful tips on storing fish feed to the number of fingerlings the average pond should contain.

Feed your fish on supplementary and complete formulated fish feeds twice a day at 9am and 4pm in order for your fish to grow big and mature faster. Farm Africa

To harvest big sized fish stock your pond with Tilapia mono-sex post fingerlings at rates of 3/m2 and Catfish at rates of 1/m2 after 3 months. Farm Africa

Feed fish with fish mash and fish starter pellets for the first 4 months and growers pellets for the remaining months to improve the taste of the fish. Farm Africa

Close pond water inlet after reaching the maximum water level of 1m and only open when the level reduces to avoid feeds and nutrients washing away. Farm Africa

Pour farm manure into the pond after every 30 days to stimulate growth of fish food, colour water to reduce predator visibility & keep off snakes. Farm Africa

The Kenyan government has responded to dwindling wild fish stocks in Lake Victoria by building fish ponds and promoting fish farming as a source of food and income. But as many farmers don’t have access to high quality feed, fish or technical advice, setting up a fish farm can be risky.

Farm Africa has been supporting new fish farmers with a network of aqua shops, which not only provide these helpful tips to farmers about fish farming, but also sell them quality feed and equipment so that ponds can thrive. And as we’ve just received a new grant from the Ford Foundation to increase the reach of our aqua shops and train up new agrodealers, we’ll be able to promote aquaculture to even more farmers, so that more people can benefit from a bigger income and a regular supply of fish to feed their families.